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New blogsistential questions

As some of you might have noticed there was a 17-day break between the two recent posts. That’s the longest since the beginning of the blog. So, I think I’ve officially been to and returned from my first blogging slump.

What’s a blogging slump?

A slump is a slowdown in an activity. I always imagined a blogging slump to be that cosy, lazy process when you simply don’t want to focus on your blog and choose to focus on something else. Turns out, it’s not always true. I simply had to do other things, but I was really missing my blog and the community. So hi guys, how are you?

The other end of the tunnel

Now when I’m back I thought I’d turn this experience into a positive one summing up those things I noticed while trying to return. I’ll also ask you some questions and if you want to reply to any of them, please, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. My hope is that both the post and the comments will be helpful to other people who are going through similar situations.

Here is how it was for me

I dreaded returning to a project that remained untouched for so long

I think it was one of the main obstacles that kept me away for longer. I felt as if I’d been neglecting a hungry monster and it could now eat me up when I’d finally turn up at the doors. Luckily, it was a mistake. No monsters behind the doors, just dear old blog and lots of familiar people in the comments and Twitter replies. 😍

Replying to comments and messages

This has been my main priority because it’s the people I’m here for. They did help me get back on track.

So do you mean you can finally relax after completing a huge task? True, it doesn’t sound like a slump to me, more like a well deserved rest. Did you post on why you moved? There was time I wanted to move to Blogger (but it was years ago with another blog, now look at me, back on wordpress as always).

Thanks! I’m so excited! That really helped me to get back because I was like, well, now I need to go back and continue making a good blog 🙂 You’ve been blogging for so many years! My different blogs appeared, blossomed and went to oblivion but yours is still there, full of energy and your awesome paintings! You are an inspiration!

I have hit slumps, and it’s usually because I’m busy with other things, then I start feeling bad that I’m not posting, and then that makes me stressed about posting, so I don’t… when that’s happened, I try to remind myself that every blogger takes time off when they need to, and no one minds. Congrats on the 19 Best Blogs!

Thank you very much! And thanks for stopping by. Yes, that’s exactly what happened to me. I actually didn’t know that every blogger takes time off. What I tried to remind myself is that I started doing it because it’s fun and that’s why I should return, not because it’s an obligation (because it isn’t).

Welcome back!!! I noticed I hadn’t seen activity from you for awhile, and I was wondering where you’d gone to. 🙂 However, I’ve also been away from my own blog for about two months — a HUGE “slump,” though mine wasn’t so much a slump as a forced break due to a medical injury. It was agony not being able to blog and use social media for blogging, but after being away from it for a little while, I did kind of get into a little slump. When I started to feel better, I was like, “Ehhh, do I really wanna go back into that chaos again?” For a day or two, I was like, NAH. Then something stirred in me, and I was concocting a plan to get my blog back in action! I’ll be posting about all that next week, when I start posting new content again. 🙂

I’m glad to see you’re out coming out of your slump. The blogging life is HARD, and I’ve heard from others that at about 6-8 months in, new bloggers hit a wall. I didn’t understand how that was possible during my first few months, but at 8 months in, I definitely get it now. I’m also trying to get ahead in my work so I can take a break to recharge if I need to. Hopefully, 2019 will be the year of great creativity and no more slumps for both of us! 🙂

And…OMG!! Congrats on being named a best book blog!! That is so awesome! I am so happy for you. I love your blog and how much you appreciate the beauty of books (and cats).

Hi there! Thank you so much for your lovely words. Yes, I do remember about your health situation. What a story! Was it possible for you to read after some time or no books either? Well, my slump was also caused by medical reasons but by ones of my cat (cats at some point) so I wasn’t ready at all to focus on anything else but them, and then, yes, as we both know, I was just delaying the return.

I never heard about the wall of 6-8 months. How interesting! I hit it at about this time exactly. I thought there’s just the burn-out somewhere 2-3 years into blogging, I was prepared for that, but not for this ealier wall.

I think the hardest thing about blogging (at least for me) is the feeling of responsibility. When I know there are already some readers who might be expecting my posts I feel the responsibility to post but this creates and urgency and necessity and it’s easy to start being put off my that, although I don’t know if there ever was a blogger who received and angry message from a subscriber, like, hey where is a new post? I know I didn’t :))

haha, I know what you mean. I don’t want to let readers down, but I really don’t think they minded my absence as much as I did. 😀 I felt almost guilty for about the first month of silence, but I soon realized that life goes on…and the blog and my readers will be there when I get back, most of them, at least.

I hope your kitties are doing better! My cat got sick, too, while I was also sick, and that was just awful. I get into a panic when my cat is unwell. I don’t know how parents with human children deal with the anxiety, lol. I can barely handle it when my cat is sick. He is doing better, though, thankfully! Though I think he is going to be very upset once I go back to work and am no longer home to snuggle all day, haha.